I feel like judging by sales isn’t that accurate. Like people a lot of people know Rosalina and daisy from spin-offs even if they’re side characters in them and I feel like hero could be combined and young link is in majoras mask
@@KittyChikin not really but the fire embelm series kinda got screwed here. Keep in mind the cast is always changing and the charcters who come from huge games with only 2 series currently vs games that got tons of remakes/spin offs like mario.
If you think about it, that was R.O.B.'s gaming debut. At no point in Gyromite or Stack-Up does R.O.B. appear. So really, his only game was Mario Kart DS.
I wonder if you could revisit this idea by polling your community and asking them "did you recognize this character before seeing them in Smash?" Alongside an image
Link is the only character that is in every Zelda game. I haven’t played all of them but i can at least tell you that both Zelda and Ganon miss out on Link’s awakening.
23:35 Terry is one I did know before smash. From an arcade cabinet in a local pizza place, and he was my favorite from that game. I only knew how to do the fire projectile and spammed it but I knew of Terry before smash.
@@emeraldbunnyYT In a Smash Sense, Roy is absolutely a fan favorite. He's one of my main characters as a matter of fact. However, outside of Smash Bros, Mega Man is one of the biggest videogame franchises of all time. Meanwhile Roy is the star of one of the worst performing Fire Emblem games sales wise and is only really known because of Smash Bros. He joined Smash before he even had a game
I don’t think that ranking a character’s recognizably based on copies sold is a good, exact measure. I think that there are a lot of other factors at play, like how old a game is, where that game is most popular, or how big of a fandom that character’s series has. Like Punch-Out was referenced in Family Guy, and many non-gamers would recognize Little Mac over, say, Mr. Game and Watch or Dark Samus.
Very strongly agree. For example, I DEFINITLY knew who Samus was before I played smash, but I didn't know snake or villager. Same thing for Wario because he's in so many mario spin off games. Id bet my PARENTS could name basically every mario character in smash aside from piranha plant and maybe Diddy and rosalina. But snake? Any of the newer pokemon? INKLING? Not a chance
I think it would be fair to count Dragon Quest hero as a representative of every game in the series, at least the mainline ones. This measuring system in general kinda puts series like Fire Emblem at a disadvantage because every game in the series has a different cast of characters.
I think Wario should've been WAYYYY higher on list. People know him from association to Mario, not just his own games. By this logic, Luigi would be really low on the list, since he's only had 4 solo games. Incinaroar, King K Rool, and Meta Knight are definitely not more well known than Wario.
Can we just appreciate how Roy is the least recognizable character, but due to the sheer love of Smash players who loved his inclusion in Melee, he got a Smash 4 DLC spot XD fucking beautiful
The low ranking fire emblem characters is a definite red flag considering that most kids in Japan have heard of fire emblem and even here in the west it has a huge following
@@thereaneptune2128 well, according to Google, greninja and lucario are the two most popular pokemon of all time, for recognisability it is arguable but having them under incineroar makes absolutely no sens.
@@artimist0315 yea it's one of the only problems in the list Plus they have smaller appearances like Pokemon Unite and Pokkém Tournament, just to name a few
@@thereaneptune2128 dude trust me. Greninja was already registered for Smash before he was even programmed into X and Y. Nintendo knew how popular he was gonna be.
Copies sold is a good starting metric but I don't think it should be the only one for some characters. Like Bayo is definitely more well known than any FE character. I knew who she was before she was in Smash and Bayonetta 3 was recently in the public eye due to the drama with the VA. And Greninja is WAAAAAAAAAAAY more popular than Incineroar. You could ask moms and they'd be more likely to know who Greninja is
@@nixter4214 FF7 is one of the most popular rpgs ever. The first few seconds of his theme are more iconic than a good chunk of the smash roster. Don’t play. Anime man or not he’s one of the coolest characters in smash and the fact he uses a sword doesn’t change that. He’s iconic as fuck.
You seem to have forgotten the second half of the Wario series, WarioWare, which bumps the franchise to over 20 Million in sales. Odd, since that series is the one that Smash focuses on the most. Gotta do that research.
Yeah, this guy forgot so many stupid games. There are too many games with Toon Link, and yet the only other one he listed I had to do a double take on.
9:07 I refuse to believe that he just omitted phantom hourglass and spirit tracks from toon links sales the toon link series as a whole (not including re-releases) sold 12.15 million games
There's no fucking way incineroar is more recognizable than cloud or Wario. And I say this as like one of five people actually incredibly hyped for incineroar getting in smash.
IKR? Terrible list all around. He didnt count the sales of Kinddom Hearts/Dissidia, etc. any of the other games Cloud and Sephiroth has appeared in... Or the sales of advent children movie or the extended cut of it. He gave Sonic a special exception, But not Link or Cloud, didn't count Majora's Mask sales for Young Link, didnt count any other Zelda game sales for Toon Link outside of 2 games; where WW link and FS link aren't the same Link anyways so why not count the ds and 3ds games for Toon Link as well...??? O.o Then again this guy forgot Megaman and thought the red bandana Hero was from dq7 not 8 so he's an idiot. One of the worst lists ive ever seen in my life
@@AwesomeMooseSmile I am at it now. At 3am. Because I'm wasting my life behind a screen. So anyway I wanted to tell you what on earth is pacman? Looks like if Kirby and a banana had a baby and then somebody ate a quarter of it and then put in a toxic barrel.
Well Greninja’s popularity is probably more a result of the anime than the actual games. Like he was popular as a starter, but Ash-Greninja blew up his popularity
@@picklenik9658 Ash-Greninja was such a mind fuck to me in 2016. I remember when the XYZ opening get leaked and we all were so confused and making fan theories. It was such a fun time he deserves the love.
I only knew 32 characters before they were introduced in Smash. I grew up with PlayStation, so most of these Nintendo characters that are considered iconic I had no clue existed until I got Smash 4.
it's genuinely amazing the reach smash bros has had in making some of these characters iconic, so many people that hadn't heard of them or their games have gone on to try them as a result. I didn't really know fire emblem, dragon quest, or castlevania before smash bros but I tried them because of their inclusion and now they're some of my absolute favorite game series.
i think counting their sales number as "recognizable" is kinda a bad choice, because there is a lot of people who recognized the characters but never played them. Like Banjo, Cloud, Lucario, etc who is **very** iconic character that you unfortunately didn't recognize The way you can tell how recognizable the characters are simply watch people's reaction towards it or look how many people talk about it. People who never played Banjo or Final Fantasy may knew who Cloud or Banjo is
Yeah, sales alone isn't a very good indicator of recognizability. Case in point : Alpharad's video on Kirby Star Allies has more views than Kirby Star Allies itself has sales. And the "sales ≠ popularity" thing is especially true for characters whose franchises haven't had a new game in years and basically only live through Smash. On the other hand, there are plenty of characters whose franchises/games didn't sell as much, but are still extremely recognizable from external media, marketing, or just pop culture osmosis. Like, saying Mr. Game&Watch is more popular outside of Smash than Inkling, Samus, or Greninja (who was at one point voted to be the most popular pokemon) just isn't really accurate.
I agree, I recognized hero instantly when they came out because they were part of my childhood. It was funny that they said the hero from 8 was the hero from 7 Edit: I've never played a pokemon game after or before heart gold, so I didn't understand the hype for incineroar or greninja
Not to mention he only put in the games that they where the main characters and never mentioned mario kart or how the mii is on the wii with or without the game and in other games too (also dosent only have one game and has ignored other games for other characters on this list too.) apperence (playable and or just in the game counts imo) and I think most ppl know rob from the angry video game nerd and most of game & watch sales are probably bc ppl are trying to get every game since each handheld only had 1-2 games and apparently there are around 60 games too!
that's extremely subjective. the set of people you interact with might recognize x character, but a different set wont. depending on age, interest and about 50 other factors. the entire list is subjective, so i guess your argument is worth as much as his.
It’s laughable how little he knew a lot of the characters. Not hating but sometimes I’m just so surprised how people don’t know games that were so huge in my life
You're not the only one, Nick. When I see anime characters in Smash, I have no idea who they are or what game they are from. I know where most of the other characters are from. But when watching the releases and I see Byleth on the screen, my immediate thought is, "Who's this guy?" Which happens with a lot of other characters. Except Steve, that one genuinely made me happy as someone who plays Minecraft religiously 😅
I've always though Mario is THE Ultra-SSS tier. Not a single video game character in human history matches him. He is a classic character from the 80s when video games were getting their hold, and he is, IMO, the undebatable FACE of video games around the world. If you ask most human beings to name a video game character, I believe most of them say Mario.
I think this video really needs to be remade/updated. The main three reason's being: 1. Kazuya and Sora are now in the game 2. Fixing any previous errors 3. Mega Man (He sold over 37 million copies, so he's in the same tier as Ryu and Kirby)
@Breya Burgess well, good for you, thats a personal experience, however I’ve seen the sheer amount of mother fans on twitter alone and I am well aware its popular, even if some people havent even played the games. A class of 30-ish people doesnt equate to the whole mother fanbase.
@@currentlybeingremade9706 Ness and Lucas are almost exclusively talked about in only specific circles. Leave those circles and you will never hear their names again. Most people have never heard of Mother 3 or Earthbound, and if they have, it's probably in relation to Undertale or another game inspired by Earthbound, some of which have made much bigger cultural splashes than their inspirations (Undertale was gifted to the Pope, and there are still plenty of people who have never heard of it). Some gamers might know Mother 3, several more have probably heard of it through other sources, but the vast majority of people would never be able to even come close to identifying Ness or Lucas. Kirby is still a prominent figure in gaming. He gets commercials, brand deals, promotional art and advertisements, and he even had a television show. He's a pillar of gaming that stands the test of time, and his adorable, simple design and the accessibility and easy difficulty of his games are appealing to all types of people. The recognizability of Ness or Lucas is not even close to comparable.
Mistake: your said that Minecraft only has one game, that’s not true. There are 4 Minecraft spin offs. Minecraft story mode, Minecraft story mode season 2, Minecraft Earth, and Minecraft Dungeons. In fact 3 songs come from these spin offs ( Earth, Halland/Dalarna, and The Arch Illager). However Steve only amperes in two of these games, theses being Minecraft Earth and Minecraft Dungeons.
Do we have to tell him lucario in probably in the top 5 most popular and recognizable pokémon of all time ? Like, having incineroar over him is super inaccurate.
I’ve actually never played a smash game, so I didn’t know who all was included in the roster. But I recognized almost all of them/recognized the games they where from. except for a few, that being, the ice climbers, olimar, R.o.B., mr game and watch, and caption falcon. Although I have heard of falcon punch
Though number of sales feels like a good indicator to go by, I feel the year of origin is also very important. As someone born in the 90s there are a handful of games, despite their sale numbers, that I’d never heard of prior to smash because they weren’t from my time, such as duck hunt, mother, castlevania, kid icarus, ROB, etc. however games more relevant to my age group such as pikmin (due to the GameCube being the main console when I was little) were more iconic to me because they were actively being talked about/sold. So I feel the level of recognizability for most if not all fighters depends somewhat on the age of the person being asked, too.
I was born in the 90’s as well and I feel bad for you If you never got to play duck hunt! And Mr Game And Watch had a release on Gameboy which was fire.
Born 2005 with very little interest in anything not minecraft, pokémon, or the legend of Zelda franchise. I knew jack shit about most people not in God tier beyond the obvious exceptions. I got into smash back in smash 4. Too poor for Ultimate sadly. So yeah i was clueless and honestly the game i want to go back and check out most is the Kid Icarus franchise, the Pits and Palutena gave that good an impression. Sad they arent more popular tbh theyre pretty cool.
Addendum. I knew the contents of the mario franchise as a whole pretty well from mario kart for the wii and 3ds i just never cared about it beyond the racing game experience.
"Toon link has only been in 2 games" **Coughs in Phantom Hourglass (literally the sequel to WindWaker), Spirit Tracks, Minish Cap, Triforce Heroes (and technically A Link Between Worlds)**
@@TDG386 the character represented in smash is ganondorf, not ganon. ganon appears in way more games than ganondorf (i think ganondorf is only in 4?) where as ganon is in most of the games. also both the ds games dont have ganon, links awakening doesnt have ganon, zelda 2 doesnt have ganon, 4 swords and minish cap dont have ganon.
What about Yoshi’s crafted and wooly world, as well as every other Mario game he appears in. It’s not about the game obviously as we have seen, it’s about the appearance. Also, for the Pokémon, I feel like they should have been counted for the sales of every game they made an appearance in, so if Golduck were in smash bros, he’d pretty much be on par with pikachu as he was in just as many games
The Miis were an Icon on the Wii for a while I hope they make or port more Mii Games like Wii sports resorts to the switch or something like that. 20:09 82.9mil copies, 20:34 202.5mil copies LET'S GO!!!
I will say one thing, even if you're aren't recognizable when you first get to smash...you eventually will become iconic, because Smash's power. I've seen people go from "Who the hell is Terry?" to non-stop quoting Terry.
@@enti and all the fire characters, I learned about them from smash (also I play smash since I was very young so basically I grew up with this series and it's kinda important to say what characters I knew before smash)
I feel like calculating what percent of console owners bought the characters’ games would be a fairer measurement of popularity, but that would be unreasonably complicated
@@ph0oj the fact the dude had never heard of cloud or sephiroth.. i was pretty shocked to find out most of my friends had no idea who sephiroth was when he was revealed so maybe its just me?
@@hanroher6949 The guy who had those games on the NES? Yea he's blue and he can shoot things...Can also be a lot of other colors including green and red...Who is it...Oh yea! Link!
I feel the Pokémon clause really screw over greninja as in Japan it’s the number 1 most popular Pokémon and it didn’t become minor in gen 7 with it getting a new form and all, in any case it’s waaaay more popular than incineroar
Games Ganondorf isn't in at all: Skyward Sword (you can argue that Demise is technically Ganon though), Minish Cap, Four Swords, Link's Awakening, Triforce Heroes, Zelda II (only shown in the death screen), Majora's Mask, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks. Games he's in, but as Ganon, not Ganondorf: A Link To The Past, Oracle of Ages/Seasons, A Link Between Worlds, The Legend of Zelda, Four Swords Adventures, Breath of The Wild.
@@ДюсековИльяс but ironically enough his tittle is actually comparable with mario with his main stream presence and this is a franchise count most Mario game didn’t even go past 50m but there so many it add up but it doesn’t nesseary more popular than Steve most of the buyer are old fan of the game, it a dumb way to compare popularity
I feel like a lot of people aren’t really realising that he only counted certain games they were in. Just for examples, literally all of the Pokémon are more popular than just their games. It’s the world’s largest media franchise so even if you’ e never played a Pokémon game you’d still see a lot of them in the tv shows, movies, plushies, etc. I’m sure there are plenty of other examples of that as well. Wario is pretty well known bc he’s in most of the Mario side games like Mario kart and Mario party and those are hugely popular
Sonic and Mario pushed each other to the levels they are at now with both of them being the most iconic video game characters of alltime and still being well respected in the gaming community today.
I’m just saying that probably most teenager or adults in Latin America know who Terry is Edit: I put "kids" before instead of teenager or adults since I forgot that I'm old af"
My mom and Dad were the best gamers of the late 80's in central Mexico and stilled played games untill the 2000's. Then it was my older siblings who played a lot of Nintendo games during the late 2000's such as Super Mario Galaxy. Finally, I was playing games every since 2013 like Super Mario 3-D World, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and more. Nintendo will truly be in my family's hearts
Great video, although there are a few tweaks I would have made. Toon Link wasn't just in Wind Waker and Four Swords but also Four Swords Adventures, Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, and Triforce Heroes. Also with Child Link, his other big appearance was in Majora's Mask, which I would definitely include because of his moveset, what with his hookshot and fire arrows. Also Yoshi had another game with Yoshi's Story on the n64. Zelda also has her appearance not just from A Link to the Past but also A Link Between Worlds.
As a LoZ fan I agree with this but also think Link should have been a spot higher, people might not know much about the franchise and call HIM Zelda, but they see him with his iconic green tunic and they recognize him, I mean, BOTW is technically the game to thank for Nintendo’s revival along with the switch console so 🤷🏻♀️
@@discolovebiscuit6017 He's got a point and I don't think anyone gives a fuck where their character ranks. There is so many inaccuracies that come with measuring this by sales. Many of these characters have appeared so much through means outside of these games. I think almost every recent Nintendo fan would recognize Pyra and Mythra based on the shit ton of promotional material they've appeared in along with their internet "presence". Same goes for Bayonetta to a lesser extent, she doesn't belong at the bottom just because her game didn't sell. You've also got Rosalina who's only ranked based on her Galaxy 1 and 2 appearance despite the fact she also appeared in 3D World and most sport spin-offs since Mario Kart Wii. Captain falcon can't exactly be ranked based on sales because he doesn't technically appear that much in many of his games. Many who played F-Zero wouldn't of been sure who captain falcon was until smash. While I suppose this is the easiest way to break a ranking like this down to an exact science, this list would definitely be more accurate if done with more general guesswork of an educated video game fan.
@@aidztube8928 No one, who isn't a modern gamer, would know of bayo, pyra or any other new mainstream character. It doesn't matter how you see it, the fact is if you take 100 random people from random ages and backgrounds, Ryu, kirby or even duckhunt would be more recognized than, say, Bayo.
Some TCLore3 for those wondering about Mega Man: I had accidentally forgotten him in my first video where I ranked every smash character’s cheater move; I found it funny that he’s the only one I forgot so I decided to exclude him in this one too lmaoo Edit: thought i'd take this pinned comment to also apologize for how some parts of the vid turned out- i tried really hard in doing research and being as fair as i could, but it was inevitable that i'd make mistakes with how big the question was. i undermined the scope of the project and should have taken more time with it. Again, I'm really sorry for any glaring mistakes/inconsistencies i've made and will do better in future vids!! definitely a learning experience more than anything :)
It seems like a common fact that many SMASH players didn't play to many videogames. It is not that they are not true gamers or anything. I say this because the people I know irl not just because of the youtubers and stuff like him or the Underdogs (LittleZ, HopCat, Poppt1, Cogger I hope you know who they are, they not play to many videogames outside the Nintendo classics for sure)
I mean I play a lot of games outside of Smash and most of the characters I was introduced through Smash. Including some newer characters. Min-Min, Joker and everyone from that creepy Xenoblade franchise. I didn't know who Cloud was but actually recognized his ridiculous weapon. I knew of characters like Banjo but never played his games (same with Mega Man). King K. Rool is what got me to get the game after not playing a Smash in like 10 plus years.
Cataloguing all of the mistakes I can find because i'm bored. -Every Fire Emblem character except Roy and Byleth: Fire Emblem Warriors should have been included. If remade today Byleth would also have Three Hopes. -Every FIre Emblem Character: While it didn't have sales, you could also include the number of downloads for Fire Emblem Heroes, Although what characters a player would see in that game would vary. -Little Mac: You forgot to include "Super Punch-Out!!" (he looks different but is the same character) -Dark Samus: It's not even clear what that hand is supposed to be in Metroid Prime, only 2 and 3 should have been counted. -Joker: You really Should've included P5 dancing as well as Persona Q2 -Hero: The Hero totals either should have been added together, or you should have included all four heroes seperately. -Banjo and Kazooie: You somehow missed three games, Nuts and Bolts, Grunty's Revenge, and Banjo-Pilot, and I'd argue Diddy Kong Racing should also count since he is a playable character in that game. -Sheik: It's unclear whether you also used OOT3D sales, but even if you did you still should have included Hyrule Warriors and its rereleases. -Toon Link: You missed Four Swords Adventures, The Minnish Cap, Spirit Tracks, Phantom Hourglass, and Triforce Heroes. -Dr. Mario: Missed Dr. Mario Online Rx, Dr. Mario 64, Dr. Mario Express, Dr. Mario Miracle Cure, and downloads for Dr. Mario World -Wolf: Wolf did not appear in the first Starfox, So sales of that should not have been counted for him specifically. -Star Fox Characters: The Nintendo Switch version of Starlink Battle For Atlas featured a significant Starfox Crossover and I think it should have been counted. -Wario: You only counted Wario Land games. You missed the entire WarioWare series, Wario's Woods, Wario Blast, and Super Mario Land 2, where he was the main antagonist. -All Mario Characters except Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser: All mario spinoff games featuring these Characters should also have been included. -Young Link: Forgot to include Majora's Mask, somehow, but i'm assuming your including OOT3D Sales this time, because how else would you get two different numbers for OOT sales. -Greninja: literally the most popular pokemon, according to multiple polls, so that's wrong. also Greninja had a new form created specifically for Sun and Moon, so sales of those games should have counted as well as he was a starring pokemon. He also appeared in Pokemon movie 17,; ticket sales should have been accounted for. Spinoffs should be included. -Samus: I know we want to forget it, But Samus did not star in every Metroid game because Federation Force exists. If remade now Metroid Dread would be included. -Cloud and Sephiroth: Appear in Crisis Core and many Final Fantasy Spinoff games, like Dissidia, which should have been included. Also you do need to factor in Advent Children ticket sales. They both also appear in Kingdom Hearts. -Lucario: Fogot to Include Platinum, but you at least mentioned the movie this time (still should've included ticket sales). Spinoffs should be included. Also Gen 6 should be counted because it got a mega-evolution. Incineroar: Spinoffs should be included. Appears in Pokemon Movie 20, ticket sales should have been counted. -Meta Night: Shouldn't have included games he hasn't appeared in because those could be the only Kirby games you've played. -Pichu: Had a major role in Pokemon Movie 12, Ticket sales should've been counted. -Koopalings: Only including NSMB Wii is insane. The koopalings didn't even debut in NSMB Wii, they debuted in Super Mario Bros. 3. also appeared in World, Superstar Saga, NSMB 2, NSMB U and Luigi U, Color Splash, Paper Jam, and Super Mario Maker 2. -Bowser Jr.: Has appeared in even more games! Besides Sunshine and NSMB Wii, he has also appeared in the original New Super Mario Bros., Galaxy 1 and 2, Sticker Star, NSMB U and Luigi U, Dream Team, Super Mario Maker 1, Paper Jam, Bowser Jr.'s Journey, Bowser's Minions, and Mario + Rabids 1. if remade now Origami King, Super Mario Maker 2, Bowsers Fury and Super Mario Bros Wonder would also be included. -Wii Fit Trainer: Forgot to include Wii Fit U. -Ryu and Ken: Crossover games like Marvel vs. Capcom, Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, SNK vs. Capcom, Street Fighter x Tekken, SVC Chaos, and Project x Zone should have been included, if they weren't, as well as spinoffs like Pocket Fighter and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. If remade today, Street Fighter 6 would also be included. -Jigglypuff: Ticket Sales Should've been included for Pokemon Movie 20. Spinoffs should be included. -Isabelle: Pocket Camp downloads should have been included as well. -Donkey Kong: Wikipedia includes Diddy Kong Racing as part of the Donkey Kong series, but donkey kong does not appear in that game, so it shouldn't be counted. The Mario Vs. Donkey Kong games on the other hand are not included, but should be counted. also not included and should be counted are Donkey Kong Land 1, 2, and 3, Donkey Konga 1, 2, and 3, Jungle Beat, Barrel Blast, King of Swing, and Jungle Climber -Diddy Kong: Conversely it is implied that only Donkey Kong Country games were counted for Diddy, but he also appears in Donkey Kong 64 and Diddy Kong Racing. Every game mentioned for Donkey Kong should also be included here, except for Jungle Beat and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong Series. -Villager: Again, Pocket Camp Downloads should be counted. -Ganondorf: Has actually not appeared in every zelda game. He does not appear in Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages and Seasons (if not linked), Majora's Mask, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, and The Minnish Cap. He also doesn't appear in Skyward Sword, But Demise does, who basically becomes ganondorf, but still he isn't called Ganondorf and he doesn't look like Ganondorf, so I still wouldn't count it. -Zelda: Again, doesn't appear in every game. Doesn't appear at all in Link's Awakening or Triforce Heroes, only appears in the Oracle games through a secret code, and only appears in Majora's Mask in a cutscene to give Link the Song of Time. -Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf: If remade today, TotK would be included. -Steve: Also appears in the spinoff game Minecraft Dungeons. -Miis: The Miis are tricky. The Wii Series games is a good way to go, especially because Wii Sports sales would probably include Wii consoles Sales. It's unclear whether or not the Wii U and some of its games are a part of the Wii series, if not they should also be counted, as well as the 3DS and Switch and some of their games. -Pokemon Trainer: The Pokemon Clause not applying to pokemon trainer for some reason is stupid. There are several games where you never get the original starters until you've already beat the game, some where you never get them at all, some where you never even see anyone use them. i would even argue that the only time they should count besides Kanto and Remakes is when they get a new form like Mega-Evolution in Gen 6 or Dynamaxing in Gen 8, And even then those would only really apply to Charizard. Again, movies where the pokemon feature prominently (squirtle M01, Charizard M01, M20) should have ticket sales accounted for and spinoffs should be included. -Mewtwo: Again, isn't always obtainable or even appear in every game. if it is you usually have to beat the game first, and the only time it should really count is when he gets a new form (mega-evolution). Spinoffs should be included and ticket sales for Pokemon Movies 1, 16, and 22 should've been counted. Bowser: SMB 2 (SMB USA) and Super Mario Land 1 and 2 Should not be counted. If Luigi's Mansion is not included, it SHOULD be counted. Peach: Super Mario Land 1 and 2 should not be counted. If Luigi's Mansion and Dark Moon are included they also should not be counted Luigi: if the Luigi's Mansion games are not included, they should be. Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Land 1 and 2 should not be counted. All Mario Characters: Downloads for Mario Kart Tour should be included. Simon: Besides 1 and 2, Simon is also the main character of Super Castlevania IV. ROB: This is actually really easy. Units of the toy sold plus units of Mario Kart DS, where he is a playable character. Don't get sentimental on me. Tier lists are supposed to be 100% objective! sarcasm obviously. Mega Man: Just... not included? at all? WTF? Kazuya and Sora: also not included but they weren't announced yet so it makes sense. For those curious Kazuya has 56.736 million copies sold, and Kingdom Hearts has sold 36 million copies. Anyway, great video! :)
It's really interesting how this thought process can change depending on which Smash game you started with. Like I knew about Shulk and Banjo prior, but Samus and Kirby were unknown to me when I played 64.
Half the roster of Smash 64 was unknown to me having grown up with Sega consoles. I only knew DK, Pokemon, and Mario characters. Everyone else was a big fat "Who?" to me.
I know skyward sword is underrated but Ganon wasn’t in skyward sword he was replaced by demise who appeared after you defeat the last lord Ghirahim boss fight.
If you wanna get extra super technical BOTW Link has only been in 3 games (Not including Smash Ultimate), Ganondorf has only been 4, and Zelda has only been on 1
Fun fact about Metal Gear Solid: Naked Snake’s (aka big boss or original snake) name is John Solid Snake’s name is David & Liquid Snakes’ name is Eli (or White Mamba) Also Olimar is the main character in Hey Pikmin on the 3ds
@@pthreelarry okay but which Vega? There was a whole translation debacle with that name. I wouldn't blame people for not knowing the claw guy, but the big bad yeah people should know by now.
Come on. Even if you have never played a video game, you’d know who donkey kong is. The design and name are the same, I don’t care if he’s technically not the canon one who appeared in the arcade game. My grandma doesn’t know who mario is, but has still heard of donkey kong.
I think Nick's choice of using game sales to determine popularity, or recognizability rather, is an interesting metric to use. I mean, if i were to try and rank this most accurately as possible i would have actual people who have never played or heard of smash ultimate before and take a poll of wether or not they know said character. It would obviously be very hard to find those people and just probably would take too long, but this would definitely give us the best results. And as well, relevancy in the gaming world today is huge, so characters from dead franchises it really old ones aren't going to be as iconic, even if they did really well back in the day. I mean, ain't no FREAKING WAY you're telling me GAME & WATCH and WII FIT TRAINER are more recognizable than Lucario, Samus, or Inkling! Plus other media featuring said character, like advertising, shows, movies, merch, and pop culture in general play big parts in a character's recognizability. You could have never EVER played a Pokemon video game but know who Jigglypuff is from the TCG or anime. However... I do appreciate the butt-ton of effort Nick put in, commiting to his system. There's a lot of characters and games to look for, so massive props to him!
Look, I'm gonna say it again. There is no good method for this. Polling doesn't work because it depends heavily on things like region and time, look at how Banjo has a tiny following in Japan despite being a childhood classic in the west, Hero having no reception in the US despite being a game so big in Japan people Cal in sick when a new one comes out, and Terry being infamous for "who is this" despite being a big choice in (I want so say but I'm not sure) South America. At that point, you would need multiple language polls, which aside from not working for a wide multitude of reasons, Aalso doesn't factor time of release. Duck Hunt is definitely one of the most iconic names of all time, but the question of do I know it vs do my little sister's friends know it is entirely different.
@@Endershock1678 yeah I'm from central America and I was so surprised to hear that so few people have heard of Terry when even my parents have heard of him but not kirby or ganondorf No matter what you do you can't make an accurate list like this
I completely agree because their are lots of characters on this list that people could know about even if they've never played the video game like kirby, the pokemon, steve and even link or donkey kong. Also the relevance thing I think is important because someone like pac-man, for example, is timeless, which is the ultimate test of recognizability. Also like why is snake so high I had no idea he was a thing at all until today
This metric also puts characters with less games or are relatively newer at a significant disadvantage. Mario has a insane boost compared to the others because of how many spin-offs he has and all of which are extremely popular, yet his mainline series (listed as starting in 1985) has sold around 389.74 million copies. His spin-offs are what put him up to 832 million copies sold. Meanwhile there are games here that have less games sold but are also significantly younger than Mario, and that would need to be taken into account. I think the poster child for this (and the one character that needs to go up at least 2 tiers imo) is Steve. Let’s look back at that number for the mainline Mario series (arguably the sub series that made him famous in the first place). That francise has sold its 384 million copies over the span of 38 years. Meanwhile Steve has one game that has only been around for 14 years. The fact that this one 14 year old game is well within 100 million copies sold of the 38 year old main Mario series is insane. Minecraft is also the best selling single game of all time beating the second place game (GTA V) by over 100 million copies, which is also insane. TLDR: Steve should probably be a few tiers higher based on how relatively new the game and the obscene number of copies it’s sold if this is the metric we want to use.
Wind waker/phantom hourglass link isn’t the same as spirit track link, although both of them are toons and they’re game follows very closely by a couple of years/decades lore wise
can we talk about how nick completely ommitted mega man
Yeah I feel like he might have missed a bit more too.
Mega who?
Nick's going the way of the Capcom I see
Who-ga man?
Isn't that the guy in the Mega Blocks commercial?!
I feel like judging by sales isn’t that accurate. Like people a lot of people know Rosalina and daisy from spin-offs even if they’re side characters in them and I feel like hero could be combined and young link is in majoras mask
Is there a more accurate way? Sales is the only official number he can go by to see how popular they are.
@@KittyChikin honestly though its not really a best way
@@KittyChikin Polling is probably the best way to go about it. Of course thats quite difficult to pull off
@@KittyChikin not really but the fire embelm series kinda got screwed here. Keep in mind the cast is always changing and the charcters who come from huge games with only 2 series currently vs games that got tons of remakes/spin offs like mario.
or minecraft
R.O.B. was also an unlockable character in _Mario Kart DS_ before any other out-of-series characters like Link were added.
That's where I knew him from lol
@@absollnk ditto
Yep
If you think about it, that was R.O.B.'s gaming debut. At no point in Gyromite or Stack-Up does R.O.B. appear. So really, his only game was Mario Kart DS.
I-
I wonder if you could revisit this idea by polling your community and asking them "did you recognize this character before seeing them in Smash?" Alongside an image
Mega Man is a product of your imagination, he doesn't actually exist
Lies! I won't believe this!
So my childhood was a lie all along?
@@KittAnimations Truth hurts, I know
Wow, my fifth favorite game doesn’t even exist?
Wow my favorite game before I knew smash 4 existed doesn’t exist wow
when piranha plant is more recognizable than Steve
Hi
@Takora yeah but cmon it’s Steve
Makes sense because some adults don’t know about Minecraft
@hd super gamer most adults know about Mario because it was around there life time
for those that think that it is more recognizable, is not, he said that those were the characters that didnt knew where to put
Who’s gonna tell him Ganon isn’t in every Zelda game...
Neither is Zelda tbh
And that toon link also had phantom hourglass and spirit tracks
Link is the only character that is in every Zelda game. I haven’t played all of them but i can at least tell you that both Zelda and Ganon miss out on Link’s awakening.
That honestly kinda annoys me, I literally paused the video having to collect my thoughts to what he said.
@@beesmchuman8588 what about wind waker, theres only toon link in there smh
23:35 Terry is one I did know before smash. From an arcade cabinet in a local pizza place, and he was my favorite from that game. I only knew how to do the fire projectile and spammed it but I knew of Terry before smash.
what's great is that most players also only know how to do the fire projectile and spam it
Bro really doesn’t know shit about kof and fatal fury fatal fury is the reason why smash even came as an idea
Rip all those Mega Man fans. Roy is apparently more memorable
He is tho
That's cuz he's our boy
Yeah, he is. I freaking love FE, and let's all be honest here. Roy is more fun to play, more fun to fight, and more hype then Megaman.
@@emeraldbunnyYT In a Smash Sense, Roy is absolutely a fan favorite. He's one of my main characters as a matter of fact. However, outside of Smash Bros, Mega Man is one of the biggest videogame franchises of all time. Meanwhile Roy is the star of one of the worst performing Fire Emblem games sales wise and is only really known because of Smash Bros. He joined Smash before he even had a game
@@NinjaPickle i know. Though I enjoy any FE game more then Megaman TBH.
Measuring Wario's popularity just by his solo outings is not at all accurate. Dude's far more popular outside his solo outings.
Exactly, he’s way more iconic than the star fox cast yet was put at the same tier
He's in practically every Mario spin off
@@joncarpenter-smith9801 he forgot warioware
He has a big meme presence too, I imagine Waluigi (if he were in Smash), could almost be at the top for that alone as well
One word. Warioware
I don’t think that ranking a character’s recognizably based on copies sold is a good, exact measure. I think that there are a lot of other factors at play, like how old a game is, where that game is most popular, or how big of a fandom that character’s series has. Like Punch-Out was referenced in Family Guy, and many non-gamers would recognize Little Mac over, say, Mr. Game and Watch or Dark Samus.
Very strongly agree. For example, I DEFINITLY knew who Samus was before I played smash, but I didn't know snake or villager. Same thing for Wario because he's in so many mario spin off games. Id bet my PARENTS could name basically every mario character in smash aside from piranha plant and maybe Diddy and rosalina. But snake? Any of the newer pokemon? INKLING? Not a chance
This exactly, characters like Bayonetta are iconic in the gaming community based on clout and word of mouth even of you’ve never played the series
The classic mom:
*sees any pokemon*
Is that Pikachu?
*Sees Snake*
That isn't Mario.
*Sees Luigi*
"Green Mario".
Yeah, but counting this type of stuff would highly complicate things.
Also, didn't Greninja get revealed in a smash trailer before pokemon revealed him?
I think it would be fair to count Dragon Quest hero as a representative of every game in the series, at least the mainline ones. This measuring system in general kinda puts series like Fire Emblem at a disadvantage because every game in the series has a different cast of characters.
I think Wario should've been WAYYYY higher on list. People know him from association to Mario, not just his own games. By this logic, Luigi would be really low on the list, since he's only had 4 solo games. Incinaroar, King K Rool, and Meta Knight are definitely not more well known than Wario.
he's in enough side games to where he should be upped, but on top of that nick only counted Wario Land and forgot about WarioWare as well
yeah, hes a playable character in the 7th best selling videogame of all time (mariokart 8 deluxe)
2am thought of the day, wario is also P3 in new super mario bros. minigame mode
Youd be delusional to pretend Wario is anywear near as relevant as Luigi
@@luigigamerocker I am not pretending that, Luigi is my favorite.
Can we just appreciate how Roy is the least recognizable character, but due to the sheer love of Smash players who loved his inclusion in Melee, he got a Smash 4 DLC spot XD fucking beautiful
u never played fire emblem heros?
Or binding blade? Great game
@@omonighoalison1606 Smash 4 was released first than fe heroes
@@sleepylinny_ oh my bad
@@omonighoalison1606 is it good?
when megaman is so forgettable that he's not forgettable.
Bro I know
that is so true
Remembered for being forgettable
Where is megaman?
@@majordiet2299 Idk
I don't know how to explain it but Meta Knight real name being George fits so well
Wouldn't be Geoge it would be Jorje
This Ranking isn't always a good system. I feel like more people recognise street fighter than metal gear
Or eathbound since
Yknow
Internet
It's not a good system at all lmao. But it's mostly for fun
@@Kuumin "How did you learn about Earthbound?"
"Oh, because of its most popular character, Sans of course"
The low ranking fire emblem characters is a definite red flag considering that most kids in Japan have heard of fire emblem and even here in the west it has a huge following
@@theghostcreator776 Also Ike is ridiculously popular but his two games sold incredibly poorly, even for the mediocre FE standards at the time
When mega man is so forgettable that you forgot him
Happy Someone besides me notices
It happens
I mean the people who play him are garbage people
If that's true then explain to how i win with him not trying to bring up a fight
Damm
I feel Lucario deserves to have X and Y’s numbers added. It is essentially the mascot of the game’s gimmick.
greninja lucario and jigglypuff only became popular through the shows and he cant rlly count that so its hard
@@thereaneptune2128 well, according to Google, greninja and lucario are the two most popular pokemon of all time, for recognisability it is arguable but having them under incineroar makes absolutely no sens.
@@artimist0315 yea it's one of the only problems in the list
Plus they have smaller appearances like Pokemon Unite and Pokkém Tournament, just to name a few
@@thereaneptune2128 dude trust me. Greninja was already registered for Smash before he was even programmed into X and Y. Nintendo knew how popular he was gonna be.
@@cornygaming8029 still kinda wish Greninja got to be in Pokken.
Copies sold is a good starting metric but I don't think it should be the only one for some characters. Like Bayo is definitely more well known than any FE character. I knew who she was before she was in Smash and Bayonetta 3 was recently in the public eye due to the drama with the VA. And Greninja is WAAAAAAAAAAAY more popular than Incineroar. You could ask moms and they'd be more likely to know who Greninja is
Gonna disagree with the Bayonetta take. Cloud's buster sword is a staple of pop culture.
@@flametoooth FE as in Fire Emblem not Final Fantasy
Also there are Minecraft Spin-offs and he said there weren't any (Dungeons has Steve in it)
@@chestercheetoe2397 sometimes my brain doesn't work im sorry
@@flametoooth You're good man
I’m surprised no ones talking about when my man disrespected Sephiroth by calling him ‘anime man’
But thats what he is
My mans just spittin facts
Is he not?
Let’s be honest who heard of the guy. I actually thought he was from an anime and not a game. Same with hero
I knew seph before, but since i didnt play FF i said the same thing i my head, tbh seph is popular but also a anime man
@@nixter4214 FF7 is one of the most popular rpgs ever. The first few seconds of his theme are more iconic than a good chunk of the smash roster. Don’t play. Anime man or not he’s one of the coolest characters in smash and the fact he uses a sword doesn’t change that. He’s iconic as fuck.
Where tf is megaman is a sentence i never thought id say
Mega Man fans were asking this a lot between 2011 and 2018
Ngl I only know Meagman from the Marvel VS Capcom games
@@tjz3158 Ah yes, a man of culture
Never heard of megaman before smash
You seem to have forgotten the second half of the Wario series, WarioWare, which bumps the franchise to over 20 Million in sales. Odd, since that series is the one that Smash focuses on the most. Gotta do that research.
Maybe he just didn’t understand the power of Jimmy T
Yeah, this guy forgot so many stupid games. There are too many games with Toon Link, and yet the only other one he listed I had to do a double take on.
@@fellowearthling1632 Yeah because he missed the Minish Cap Spirit Tracks and Phantom Hourglass
They also forgot about Wario World too
He clearly didn't. He's a noob and a normie.
9:07 I refuse to believe that he just omitted phantom hourglass and spirit tracks from toon links sales the toon link series as a whole (not including re-releases) sold 12.15 million games
There's no fucking way incineroar is more recognizable than cloud or Wario. And I say this as like one of five people actually incredibly hyped for incineroar getting in smash.
IKR? Terrible list all around. He didnt count the sales of Kinddom Hearts/Dissidia, etc. any of the other games Cloud and Sephiroth has appeared in... Or the sales of advent children movie or the extended cut of it. He gave Sonic a special exception, But not Link or Cloud, didn't count Majora's Mask sales for Young Link, didnt count any other Zelda game sales for Toon Link outside of 2 games; where WW link and FS link aren't the same Link anyways so why not count the ds and 3ds games for Toon Link as well...??? O.o
Then again this guy forgot Megaman and thought the red bandana Hero was from dq7 not 8 so he's an idiot. One of the worst lists ive ever seen in my life
@@bigtoblerone8446 we get it , you have no life outside of video games. Go see the sun for once in your life instead of wasting our life like this.
Never heard of cloud I just play minecraft all day and not sleep at all
@@nixter4214 GO TO THE BATHROOM! YOUR SHITTING YOURSELF
@@AwesomeMooseSmile I am at it now. At 3am. Because I'm wasting my life behind a screen. So anyway I wanted to tell you what on earth is pacman? Looks like if Kirby and a banana had a baby and then somebody ate a quarter of it and then put in a toxic barrel.
Greninja is the lowest Pokemon and yet he was voted the most popular Pokemon in early 2020
Don't make sense right?
And Greninja is much more recognizable than Inceneroar, but I know it's not the metric he's using.
Well Greninja’s popularity is probably more a result of the anime than the actual games. Like he was popular as a starter, but Ash-Greninja blew up his popularity
@@picklenik9658 true though Greninja is cool enough without his mega-like form
@@picklenik9658 Ash-Greninja was such a mind fuck to me in 2016. I remember when the XYZ opening get leaked and we all were so confused and making fan theories. It was such a fun time he deserves the love.
@@GreyZuma WAIT XYZ WAS IN 2016?!?? God i feel weird, i still renember it as new
I just don't think this guy knows very many iconic characters.
I only knew 35/80 before seeing them in Smash (I say 80 for Megaman's sake, despite the fact I didn't know about him before Smash either lol).
I only knew 32 characters before they were introduced in Smash. I grew up with PlayStation, so most of these Nintendo characters that are considered iconic I had no clue existed until I got Smash 4.
Yea i knew atleast 50 of these characters before playing smash
@@lightningbolt95 That's at least 15 more than me lol
when I first played Smash brawl, I only recognized Sonic, the Mario and Pokémon cast.. and ROB
it's genuinely amazing the reach smash bros has had in making some of these characters iconic, so many people that hadn't heard of them or their games have gone on to try them as a result. I didn't really know fire emblem, dragon quest, or castlevania before smash bros but I tried them because of their inclusion and now they're some of my absolute favorite game series.
i think counting their sales number as "recognizable" is kinda a bad choice, because there is a lot of people who recognized the characters but never played them. Like Banjo, Cloud, Lucario, etc who is **very** iconic character that you unfortunately didn't recognize
The way you can tell how recognizable the characters are simply watch people's reaction towards it or look how many people talk about it. People who never played Banjo or Final Fantasy may knew who Cloud or Banjo is
Yeah, sales alone isn't a very good indicator of recognizability. Case in point : Alpharad's video on Kirby Star Allies has more views than Kirby Star Allies itself has sales. And the "sales ≠ popularity" thing is especially true for characters whose franchises haven't had a new game in years and basically only live through Smash. On the other hand, there are plenty of characters whose franchises/games didn't sell as much, but are still extremely recognizable from external media, marketing, or just pop culture osmosis. Like, saying Mr. Game&Watch is more popular outside of Smash than Inkling, Samus, or Greninja (who was at one point voted to be the most popular pokemon) just isn't really accurate.
I agree, I recognized hero instantly when they came out because they were part of my childhood. It was funny that they said the hero from 8 was the hero from 7
Edit: I've never played a pokemon game after or before heart gold, so I didn't understand the hype for incineroar or greninja
Not to mention he only put in the games that they where the main characters and never mentioned mario kart or how the mii is on the wii with or without the game and in other games too (also dosent only have one game and has ignored other games for other characters on this list too.) apperence (playable and or just in the game counts imo) and I think most ppl know rob from the angry video game nerd and most of game & watch sales are probably bc ppl are trying to get every game since each handheld only had 1-2 games and apparently there are around 60 games too!
that's extremely subjective. the set of people you interact with might recognize x character, but a different set wont. depending on age, interest and about 50 other factors.
the entire list is subjective, so i guess your argument is worth as much as his.
Yeah. I recognized Bayonetta even though I never played any Bayonetta games.
So you're just gonna straight up ignore Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks as games that Toon Link appeared in????????
I feel like Wind Waker is much more iconic than the other games, most people only know that one out of the Toon Link games
Never heard of any of those characters
@@tameoregano5006 The games or just toon Link? If the former, what are you doing with your life? Play a Zelda game.
I got to know him just because of Phantom Hourglass, seeing it now feels so nostalgic goddamn
Sure, he straight up ignored Mega Man.
It’s laughable how little he knew a lot of the characters. Not hating but sometimes I’m just so surprised how people don’t know games that were so huge in my life
lol like, who the heck is Samus?
-Cheezy Burger, age 9, playing Smash for the first time
What's a Link?
-Me playing smash 4 for the first time
@@chez-berger Wait, who's Sephiroth?
-Me, during his reveal
@@cheezsteak2229 that was basically me as well lol
"who in the hell is Link, isn' the elf guy named Zelda?"
6 years old me playing Super Smash Flash 2 - 789 bc.
You're not the only one, Nick. When I see anime characters in Smash, I have no idea who they are or what game they are from. I know where most of the other characters are from. But when watching the releases and I see Byleth on the screen, my immediate thought is, "Who's this guy?" Which happens with a lot of other characters.
Except Steve, that one genuinely made me happy as someone who plays Minecraft religiously 😅
Ummm is someone gonna tell him that the Koopa Kids are technically older than Bowser Jr. By being in Super Mario Bros. 3.
i don't think they were qualified for this
They didn’t have the same names.
@@godofdreamzzz yes they did lol
Edit: unless you count in the show...in which case yeah...they did have a name change
@@godofdreamzzz In the games, Yes. In the DIC cartoon, no.
@@godofdreamzzz no, the names were the same(the show yes but it isn't canon)
"While it's technically the only game in the franchise"
*Coughs in Minecraft having 5 games*
OG, Story Mode, Earth, Dungeons...what’s the 5th one?
Education Edition Probably
@@deadheat1635 there is minecraft, minecraft story mode, minecraft story mode season 2, minecraft earth, and minecraft dungeons
@@rafvillanueva9985 oh
I never knew who minecraft was until Smash
He forgot Mega Man because he was a very recognizable character back in the day but now nobody knows about him.
So was banjo but he’s still here
BLASPHEMY
Mega Man was one of my favorite Arcade games
@@Aronator02 Power Battle exists get a different joke
Mega man series and X series are my favorite platformer games 🤷🏽♂️
I've always though Mario is THE Ultra-SSS tier. Not a single video game character in human history matches him. He is a classic character from the 80s when video games were getting their hold, and he is, IMO, the undebatable FACE of video games around the world. If you ask most human beings to name a video game character, I believe most of them say Mario.
Pacman and donkey Kong are also there alongside him tho, mostly pacman
I’d argue sonic is right next to him tbh
@@CrypticKnight10 no bc Pikachu is the 2nd... The third place is debatable with Luigi and maybe Bowser and Peach being there
@@Hes_Gone nah the picachu augment makes sense but libi peach and bower def not close to sonic in terms of popularity even to this day
@@OhYeah10100 hey you good say the same for sonic and Pac-Man they both original ogs and there games getting better by the second
I think this video really needs to be remade/updated. The main three reason's being:
1. Kazuya and Sora are now in the game
2. Fixing any previous errors
3. Mega Man (He sold over 37 million copies, so he's in the same tier as Ryu and Kirby)
I mean if you count the name of megaman you can technically count the X saga, Legends, etc.
That's what I'm saying!
He's more in the GOATS tier as I'd say he's just as well known as pacman
Are u counting the alternate universes, timelines, and titles
@@fallenrealm49 i wouldnt say as well know. as pac man but he is very well known
I genuinely don't think I've ever met a person that doesn't know who kirby is
Or ness and lucas
Its dumb
@Breya Burgess well, good for you, thats a personal experience, however I’ve seen the sheer amount of mother fans on twitter alone and I am well aware its popular, even if some people havent even played the games. A class of 30-ish people doesnt equate to the whole mother fanbase.
@Tristan Yk I disagree considering how big both games separate following is, with Mother 3’s having outgrown earthbound in some areas
@@currentlybeingremade9706 Ness and Lucas are almost exclusively talked about in only specific circles. Leave those circles and you will never hear their names again. Most people have never heard of Mother 3 or Earthbound, and if they have, it's probably in relation to Undertale or another game inspired by Earthbound, some of which have made much bigger cultural splashes than their inspirations (Undertale was gifted to the Pope, and there are still plenty of people who have never heard of it). Some gamers might know Mother 3, several more have probably heard of it through other sources, but the vast majority of people would never be able to even come close to identifying Ness or Lucas.
Kirby is still a prominent figure in gaming. He gets commercials, brand deals, promotional art and advertisements, and he even had a television show. He's a pillar of gaming that stands the test of time, and his adorable, simple design and the accessibility and easy difficulty of his games are appealing to all types of people. The recognizability of Ness or Lucas is not even close to comparable.
My whole class didnt know who Kirby was
MegaMan: "Yeah I understand"
what's a Mega Man?
Mega man?... OH the blue boy from super smash flash
@@themightykingjosiah8810 nah that's Sonic
@TheAnimationGuy160 I wanted to argue this but...it kinda makes sense 😵
this pissed me off
23:58 Yo did this man just call R.O.B., Robert 🤣🤣🤣
Some of these characters are more iconic as smash characters than the are in their games
That's why he's talking about them outside of smash, Roy is only known because of smash, if you don't know smash, you don't know him
Some of them are alive just for smash
Ice Climbers, Simon, and Richter: *silently crying*
Agreed
@@blu_rayx2844 Captain Falcon intensifies.
Mega Man actually got REVIVED by smash...but he forgot mega man xD
Mistake: your said that Minecraft only has one game, that’s not true. There are 4 Minecraft spin offs. Minecraft story mode, Minecraft story mode season 2, Minecraft Earth, and Minecraft Dungeons. In fact 3 songs come from these spin offs ( Earth, Halland/Dalarna, and The Arch Illager). However Steve only amperes in two of these games, theses being Minecraft Earth and Minecraft Dungeons.
Minecraft Lite
Minecraft Education Edition
True, but honestly those other games' sales pale in comparison to the original game
idkwhat a minecraft earth is tbh but steve was not in dungoens
maybe i am wrong i did not play the game
Do we have to tell him lucario in probably in the top 5 most popular and recognizable pokémon of all time ? Like, having incineroar over him is super inaccurate.
And greninja was voted most popular
Yeah. Sun and Moon was well marketed but ultimately one of the least fondly remembered of the entire series.
Greninja and lucario have both featured in popular Pokémon movies
plus, ash greninja was the selling point of the sun and moon demo, so sun and moon sales could be attributed to greninja too
Little does he know greninja was voted most popular aside with charizard and mimikyu
I’ve actually never played a smash game, so I didn’t know who all was included in the roster. But I recognized almost all of them/recognized the games they where from. except for a few, that being, the ice climbers, olimar, R.o.B., mr game and watch, and caption falcon. Although I have heard of falcon punch
Though number of sales feels like a good indicator to go by, I feel the year of origin is also very important. As someone born in the 90s there are a handful of games, despite their sale numbers, that I’d never heard of prior to smash because they weren’t from my time, such as duck hunt, mother, castlevania, kid icarus, ROB, etc. however games more relevant to my age group such as pikmin (due to the GameCube being the main console when I was little) were more iconic to me because they were actively being talked about/sold. So I feel the level of recognizability for most if not all fighters depends somewhat on the age of the person being asked, too.
I was born in the 90’s as well and I feel bad for you If you never got to play duck hunt!
And Mr Game And Watch had a release on Gameboy which was fire.
Born 2005 with very little interest in anything not minecraft, pokémon, or the legend of Zelda franchise. I knew jack shit about most people not in God tier beyond the obvious exceptions. I got into smash back in smash 4. Too poor for Ultimate sadly. So yeah i was clueless and honestly the game i want to go back and check out most is the Kid Icarus franchise, the Pits and Palutena gave that good an impression. Sad they arent more popular tbh theyre pretty cool.
Addendum. I knew the contents of the mario franchise as a whole pretty well from mario kart for the wii and 3ds i just never cared about it beyond the racing game experience.
"Toon link has only been in 2 games"
**Coughs in Phantom Hourglass (literally the sequel to WindWaker), Spirit Tracks, Minish Cap, Triforce Heroes (and technically A Link Between Worlds)**
"Ganon was in every Zelda game"
-Uncultured Swine, 18:51, May 24, 2021
You can also count the GBA version of Link to the Past.
@@chez-berger you're pretty much right because of link awakening and maybe a Oracle game
@@TDG386 the character represented in smash is ganondorf, not ganon. ganon appears in way more games than ganondorf (i think ganondorf is only in 4?) where as ganon is in most of the games. also both the ds games dont have ganon, links awakening doesnt have ganon, zelda 2 doesnt have ganon, 4 swords and minish cap dont have ganon.
@@Ayre223 Ganon isn't in Majora's Mask either right?
"Pet owner hero... Dragon Quest 7"
Bruh his name is literally 8 what
But the name is based on the game... Circular reasoning
I came looking for this comment hahaha
It's
Luminary
Loto/Erdrick
Solo
And Eight
XD
Dragon quest 7..?
He.. isnt wearing green tho
@@alphaclouder actually its he Guv
What about Yoshi’s crafted and wooly world, as well as every other Mario game he appears in. It’s not about the game obviously as we have seen, it’s about the appearance.
Also, for the Pokémon, I feel like they should have been counted for the sales of every game they made an appearance in, so if Golduck were in smash bros, he’d pretty much be on par with pikachu as he was in just as many games
Why wasn’t Luigi higher than peach and Bowser? You should’ve been Boosted by the original Mario brothers arcade game.
I guess he sees them as all the same iconic-levelness
Especially with Luigi’s Mansion included.
@@furby9284 and Mario's Missing!
The Miis were an Icon on the Wii for a while I hope they make or port more Mii Games like Wii sports resorts to the switch or something like that. 20:09 82.9mil copies, 20:34 202.5mil copies LET'S GO!!!
Should of just called the video, "I haven't played many video games."
And ‘I dont know much about video games either’
More like, “before smash, I didn’t know any of these guys”
How didnt he know sephiroth lol,he doesnt even know hes in kingdom hearts too
correction: "I haven't played many nintendo games"
@@pedroks7756 no one knows what a fire emblem is 👍
Now we can have the “billion dollar movie” tier
I doubt it would've changed much, but Pit and Palutena were both in Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
Yes, the floor is made of floor. of course
There's a sequel but never mentioned and it's on the Gameboy.
@@eyyy2271 to be fair, not many people know this game exists, it wasn't even released in japan where it was made
I will say one thing, even if you're aren't recognizable when you first get to smash...you eventually will become iconic, because Smash's power.
I've seen people go from "Who the hell is Terry?" to non-stop quoting Terry.
True, Smash made a lot of people get into their favorite fighters's games, it happened to me with Banjo, Lucas and Pit
@@enti and all the fire characters, I learned about them from smash (also I play smash since I was very young so basically I grew up with this series and it's kinda important to say what characters I knew before smash)
A lot of people I know never knew who Bayonetta was
Now no one will ever forget the name Bayonetta…
Imagine what that could do for Klonoa!
: D
Are you ok?
15:36
"Shoryuken!"
- Ryu in Wreck-It Ralph
4:00 Ice Climber was so 'not hit' that you failed to realize that it was called Ice Climber and not Ice Climbers
I feel like calculating what percent of console owners bought the characters’ games would be a fairer measurement of popularity, but that would be unreasonably complicated
When people forget spirt tracks and phantom hourglass: cry
Right?
To be fair the one in Spirit Tracks was a different Toon Link. But yeah, the one in Phantom Hourglass was the same as the one in Wind Waker.
also, id consider minish cap toon link as they share a lot of designs from wind waker in that game
What the heck is that
@@sssunnyd7874 ;-;
"While the only game in its series"
Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Earth would like to have a talk with you
minecraft EDUCATION EDITION
MINECRAFT STORYMODE
@@ike.6896 steve ain't in minecraft storymode 1 or 2
They’re spin-offs not an actual franchise
Lol we know we’re joking
8:50 : "Her only main appearance outside smash."
Yeah. No one know Hyrule Warriors. It's sad.
'Greninja is the least recognisable Pokémon'
And the winner of Pokémon Of The Year 2020 is... GRENINJA!
For someone talking videogames, the amount of games this UA-camr has actually played is alarmingly low.
IKR
You’re telling me this man hasn’t played OCARINA OF TIME
@@cervintano for some reason alot of smash youtubers really only play smash. same with minecraft youtubers too (well at least most of them)
@@ph0oj at least introspektive seems to be an exception
@@heitorzincleiton5071 fard
@@ph0oj the fact the dude had never heard of cloud or sephiroth..
i was pretty shocked to find out most of my friends had no idea who sephiroth was when he was revealed so maybe its just me?
Megaman got simply removed
*also ik this wont help but,banjo has a 3rd game, and luigi had a entire series and a year made for him*
Many people would like to forget Nuts and Bolts never happens. Also Banjo had 2 GBA games. Banjo Pilot and Gruntys Revenge.
minecraft story mode, story mode season 2, earth, dungeons and legends all simultaneously left the chat.
Poor Megaman though, i guess he's lower that a "who ...?" Tier. In a tier "whoops, totaly forgot ya"
Wario too
Mega man?... OH the blue boy from super smash flash
@@themightykingjosiah8810 yeah, that guy... what's name again..?
@@hanroher6949 The guy who had those games on the NES? Yea he's blue and he can shoot things...Can also be a lot of other colors including green and red...Who is it...Oh yea! Link!
I have caused many *DEATHS* in the first Mario Bros level *EVER* 1-1, I have killed *MARIO* many times...
-Goomba 2021
Lol true
But so have many towards you and your kind
you are a hero to your kind.
And ive killed you Many. MANY. Times
I feel the Pokémon clause really screw over greninja as in Japan it’s the number 1 most popular Pokémon and it didn’t become minor in gen 7 with it getting a new form and all, in any case it’s waaaay more popular than incineroar
His Pokémon shit was dumb. Only counting Lucarios debut game despite how big it was in future games, the introduction to megas in x and y. Just silly.
this guy hardly plays video games
Let’s goooo greninja
“Greninja’s game in Pokémon X and Y”
*Cuts to gen 7 footage*
“Ganondorf has been in every Zelda game”
Yeah no
Ganon was in breath of the wild, not ganondorf. There is a difference imo.
Yeah no, he's not in Majora Mask, Spirit Tracks and Phantom Hourglass-
And if it happens I forgot one or two game where he isn't in a Zelda game
Games Ganondorf isn't in at all: Skyward Sword (you can argue that Demise is technically Ganon though), Minish Cap, Four Swords, Link's Awakening, Triforce Heroes, Zelda II (only shown in the death screen), Majora's Mask, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks.
Games he's in, but as Ganon, not Ganondorf: A Link To The Past, Oracle of Ages/Seasons, A Link Between Worlds, The Legend of Zelda, Four Swords Adventures, Breath of The Wild.
Ok honestly I can’t tell if I am being agreed with or not, so sorry if I sound accusing. I’m saying that ganon(dorf) is not in every Zelda game
I'm surprised that no one is talking about how he didn't put Steve in the GOATS tier when he is arguably one of the most iconic people in gaming
Yeah, and I don't even know who Pac-Man was until Smash 4 (his appearance kinda different from his orginal game)
@@LoliPeeSlurper the smash model is based off of the PacMan World Series
His sales don't come lose to Mario's, Sonic's and Pokemon franchises. Like if it was based on 1 game minecraft would win.
@@ДюсековИльяс but ironically enough his tittle is actually comparable with mario with his main stream presence and this is a franchise count most Mario game didn’t even go past 50m but there so many it add up but it doesn’t nesseary more popular than Steve most of the buyer are old fan of the game, it a dumb way to compare popularity
@@LoliPeeSlurper Who tf doesn't know Pac-Man lmao
What you also don't know what tetris is?
I respect you for putting Sonic in the highest tier. Arguably one of the most iconic gaming characters ever
YES!!!
Who doesnt know of the blue blur? The rivalry with sonic and Mario made them transcend popularity outside of gaming itself
@@StarVerix hes mainly known for his bad games and memes like furry community and deviantart
@@reservoir4798 you are wrong about that one bro
@@darkshadow1012 it makes me happy to know people still respect him
problem with hero is that I feel they should be much higher but it's hard to quantify because dragon quest is HUGE in japan but not really in the US
Yeah, he’s probably the most recognizable character in Japan outside the Nintendo characters like Mario and Link.
I feel like a lot of people aren’t really realising that he only counted certain games they were in. Just for examples, literally all of the Pokémon are more popular than just their games. It’s the world’s largest media franchise so even if you’ e never played a Pokémon game you’d still see a lot of them in the tv shows, movies, plushies, etc.
I’m sure there are plenty of other examples of that as well. Wario is pretty well known bc he’s in most of the Mario side games like Mario kart and Mario party and those are hugely popular
Sonic and Mario pushed each other to the levels they are at now with both of them being the most iconic video game characters of alltime and still being well respected in the gaming community today.
Pikachu is also up there. Maybe Zelda.
@@SKsuprakirby They not on Sonic and Marios level not ecen close. Pickachu Anime is the most iconic but he isn't for gaming.
@@SKsuprakirby naw but Minecraft steve is most definitely the most recognizable character
Hello, Archie Sonic. How'd your race with Wally West go?
@@kyledavid9415 It went fine ended in a tie so We're just friends now.
I’m just saying that probably most teenager or adults in Latin America know who Terry is
Edit: I put "kids" before instead of teenager or adults since I forgot that I'm old af"
Maybe not kids but teenagers and adults. I have seen less and less KoF arcades in local pharmacies and shops.
and Japan
I'm in America and I knew who Terry was. I just never played a single game he was in.
I'm a kid from Latin American and of all friends, family and everyone else I asked not a single person knew who Terry was
Oh so no one?
My mom and Dad were the best gamers of the late 80's in central Mexico and stilled played games untill the 2000's. Then it was my older siblings who played a lot of Nintendo games during the late 2000's such as Super Mario Galaxy. Finally, I was playing games every since 2013 like Super Mario 3-D World, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and more. Nintendo will truly be in my family's hearts
24:48 “PAC-MAN hasn’t seen much glory lately.”
PAC-MAN 99: Am I a joke to you?
Also the two championship editions
@@rayking5399 That too.
@@pacmanfan3488 Really? I’ve never heard anyone bad mouth Pac-Man.
@@Jellyman1129 I think you clearly don't know about instagram...
@@pacmanfan3488 I follow official Pac-Man on Instagram and haven’t heard anything bad.
This is such an inaccurate way to rank character popularity
Yeah, this list was for fun
@MARIO I admit you a goat but only ONE of them
Great video, although there are a few tweaks I would have made. Toon Link wasn't just in Wind Waker and Four Swords but also Four Swords Adventures, Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, and Triforce Heroes. Also with Child Link, his other big appearance was in Majora's Mask, which I would definitely include because of his moveset, what with his hookshot and fire arrows. Also Yoshi had another game with Yoshi's Story on the n64. Zelda also has her appearance not just from A Link to the Past but also A Link Between Worlds.
As a LoZ fan I agree with this but also think Link should have been a spot higher, people might not know much about the franchise and call HIM Zelda, but they see him with his iconic green tunic and they recognize him, I mean, BOTW is technically the game to thank for Nintendo’s revival along with the switch console so 🤷🏻♀️
Young link is more iconic to majora’s mask than ocarina of time anyway
Oh and didn’t ganondorf star in oot? He wasn’t there from the beginning was he?
This 👆
Also there are Minecraft Spin-offs
What about the Yoshi series
One single Mario spin off game sells more than the whole Fire Emblem franchise.
I’m gonna be honest, this isn’t really an accurate way to show character popularity.
Yep
someone's main was put in bottom tier
@@discolovebiscuit6017 He's got a point and I don't think anyone gives a fuck where their character ranks. There is so many inaccuracies that come with measuring this by sales.
Many of these characters have appeared so much through means outside of these games. I think almost every recent Nintendo fan would recognize Pyra and Mythra based on the shit ton of promotional material they've appeared in along with their internet "presence". Same goes for Bayonetta to a lesser extent, she doesn't belong at the bottom just because her game didn't sell.
You've also got Rosalina who's only ranked based on her Galaxy 1 and 2 appearance despite the fact she also appeared in 3D World and most sport spin-offs since Mario Kart Wii.
Captain falcon can't exactly be ranked based on sales because he doesn't technically appear that much in many of his games. Many who played F-Zero wouldn't of been sure who captain falcon was until smash.
While I suppose this is the easiest way to break a ranking like this down to an exact science, this list would definitely be more accurate if done with more general guesswork of an educated video game fan.
@@discolovebiscuit6017 I main wolf.
@@aidztube8928 No one, who isn't a modern gamer, would know of bayo, pyra or any other new mainstream character. It doesn't matter how you see it, the fact is if you take 100 random people from random ages and backgrounds, Ryu, kirby or even duckhunt would be more recognized than, say, Bayo.
Some TCLore3 for those wondering about Mega Man:
I had accidentally forgotten him in my first video where I ranked every smash character’s cheater move; I found it funny that he’s the only one I forgot so I decided to exclude him in this one too lmaoo
Edit: thought i'd take this pinned comment to also apologize for how some parts of the vid turned out- i tried really hard in doing research and being as fair as i could, but it was inevitable that i'd make mistakes with how big the question was. i undermined the scope of the project and should have taken more time with it. Again, I'm really sorry for any glaring mistakes/inconsistencies i've made and will do better in future vids!! definitely a learning experience more than anything :)
Dude. R.O.B's Name Is Not Robert. The R.O.B Stands For Robotic Operating Buddy
Mega-Man? What’s that?
Well it bothered me immensely
Tell me, who is this Manga Mayan? And why does he fire lemons?
Leaving out mega man does fit in well
I just been questioning myself through out the video if this guy actually plays video games.
Same lol
I didn’t know a bunch of these characters before smash because I wasn’t really a Nintendo person until recently
It seems like a common fact that many SMASH players didn't play to many videogames. It is not that they are not true gamers or anything. I say this because the people I know irl not just because of the youtubers and stuff like him or the Underdogs (LittleZ, HopCat, Poppt1, Cogger I hope you know who they are, they not play to many videogames outside the Nintendo classics for sure)
Man really just doesn't play games outside smash
I mean I play a lot of games outside of Smash and most of the characters I was introduced through Smash. Including some newer characters. Min-Min, Joker and everyone from that creepy Xenoblade franchise. I didn't know who Cloud was but actually recognized his ridiculous weapon. I knew of characters like Banjo but never played his games (same with Mega Man). King K. Rool is what got me to get the game after not playing a Smash in like 10 plus years.
Cataloguing all of the mistakes I can find because i'm bored.
-Every Fire Emblem character except Roy and Byleth: Fire Emblem Warriors should have been included. If remade today Byleth would also have Three Hopes.
-Every FIre Emblem Character: While it didn't have sales, you could also include the number of downloads for Fire Emblem Heroes, Although what characters a player would see in that game would vary.
-Little Mac: You forgot to include "Super Punch-Out!!" (he looks different but is the same character)
-Dark Samus: It's not even clear what that hand is supposed to be in Metroid Prime, only 2 and 3 should have been counted.
-Joker: You really Should've included P5 dancing as well as Persona Q2
-Hero: The Hero totals either should have been added together, or you should have included all four heroes seperately.
-Banjo and Kazooie: You somehow missed three games, Nuts and Bolts, Grunty's Revenge, and Banjo-Pilot, and I'd argue Diddy Kong Racing should also count since he is a playable character in that game.
-Sheik: It's unclear whether you also used OOT3D sales, but even if you did you still should have included Hyrule Warriors and its rereleases.
-Toon Link: You missed Four Swords Adventures, The Minnish Cap, Spirit Tracks, Phantom Hourglass, and Triforce Heroes.
-Dr. Mario: Missed Dr. Mario Online Rx, Dr. Mario 64, Dr. Mario Express, Dr. Mario Miracle Cure, and downloads for Dr. Mario World
-Wolf: Wolf did not appear in the first Starfox, So sales of that should not have been counted for him specifically.
-Star Fox Characters: The Nintendo Switch version of Starlink Battle For Atlas featured a significant Starfox Crossover and I think it should have been counted.
-Wario: You only counted Wario Land games. You missed the entire WarioWare series, Wario's Woods, Wario Blast, and Super Mario Land 2, where he was the main antagonist.
-All Mario Characters except Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser: All mario spinoff games featuring these Characters should also have been included.
-Young Link: Forgot to include Majora's Mask, somehow, but i'm assuming your including OOT3D Sales this time, because how else would you get two different numbers for OOT sales.
-Greninja: literally the most popular pokemon, according to multiple polls, so that's wrong. also Greninja had a new form created specifically for Sun and Moon, so sales of those games should have counted as well as he was a starring pokemon. He also appeared in Pokemon movie 17,; ticket sales should have been accounted for. Spinoffs should be included.
-Samus: I know we want to forget it, But Samus did not star in every Metroid game because Federation Force exists. If remade now Metroid Dread would be included.
-Cloud and Sephiroth: Appear in Crisis Core and many Final Fantasy Spinoff games, like Dissidia, which should have been included. Also you do need to factor in Advent Children ticket sales. They both also appear in Kingdom Hearts.
-Lucario: Fogot to Include Platinum, but you at least mentioned the movie this time (still should've included ticket sales). Spinoffs should be included. Also Gen 6 should be counted because it got a mega-evolution.
Incineroar: Spinoffs should be included. Appears in Pokemon Movie 20, ticket sales should have been counted.
-Meta Night: Shouldn't have included games he hasn't appeared in because those could be the only Kirby games you've played.
-Pichu: Had a major role in Pokemon Movie 12, Ticket sales should've been counted.
-Koopalings: Only including NSMB Wii is insane. The koopalings didn't even debut in NSMB Wii, they debuted in Super Mario Bros. 3. also appeared in World, Superstar Saga, NSMB 2, NSMB U and Luigi U, Color Splash, Paper Jam, and Super Mario Maker 2.
-Bowser Jr.: Has appeared in even more games! Besides Sunshine and NSMB Wii, he has also appeared in the original New Super Mario Bros., Galaxy 1 and 2, Sticker Star, NSMB U and Luigi U, Dream Team, Super Mario Maker 1, Paper Jam, Bowser Jr.'s Journey, Bowser's Minions, and Mario + Rabids 1. if remade now Origami King, Super Mario Maker 2, Bowsers Fury and Super Mario Bros Wonder would also be included.
-Wii Fit Trainer: Forgot to include Wii Fit U.
-Ryu and Ken: Crossover games like Marvel vs. Capcom, Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, SNK vs. Capcom, Street Fighter x Tekken, SVC Chaos, and Project x Zone should have been included, if they weren't, as well as spinoffs like Pocket Fighter and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. If remade today, Street Fighter 6 would also be included.
-Jigglypuff: Ticket Sales Should've been included for Pokemon Movie 20. Spinoffs should be included.
-Isabelle: Pocket Camp downloads should have been included as well.
-Donkey Kong: Wikipedia includes Diddy Kong Racing as part of the Donkey Kong series, but donkey kong does not appear in that game, so it shouldn't be counted. The Mario Vs. Donkey Kong games on the other hand are not included, but should be counted. also not included and should be counted are Donkey Kong Land 1, 2, and 3, Donkey Konga 1, 2, and 3, Jungle Beat, Barrel Blast, King of Swing, and Jungle Climber
-Diddy Kong: Conversely it is implied that only Donkey Kong Country games were counted for Diddy, but he also appears in Donkey Kong 64 and Diddy Kong Racing. Every game mentioned for Donkey Kong should also be included here, except for Jungle Beat and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong Series.
-Villager: Again, Pocket Camp Downloads should be counted.
-Ganondorf: Has actually not appeared in every zelda game. He does not appear in Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages and Seasons (if not linked), Majora's Mask, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, and The Minnish Cap. He also doesn't appear in Skyward Sword, But Demise does, who basically becomes ganondorf, but still he isn't called Ganondorf and he doesn't look like Ganondorf, so I still wouldn't count it.
-Zelda: Again, doesn't appear in every game. Doesn't appear at all in Link's Awakening or Triforce Heroes, only appears in the Oracle games through a secret code, and only appears in Majora's Mask in a cutscene to give Link the Song of Time.
-Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf: If remade today, TotK would be included.
-Steve: Also appears in the spinoff game Minecraft Dungeons.
-Miis: The Miis are tricky. The Wii Series games is a good way to go, especially because Wii Sports sales would probably include Wii consoles Sales. It's unclear whether or not the Wii U and some of its games are a part of the Wii series, if not they should also be counted, as well as the 3DS and Switch and some of their games.
-Pokemon Trainer: The Pokemon Clause not applying to pokemon trainer for some reason is stupid. There are several games where you never get the original starters until you've already beat the game, some where you never get them at all, some where you never even see anyone use them. i would even argue that the only time they should count besides Kanto and Remakes is when they get a new form like Mega-Evolution in Gen 6 or Dynamaxing in Gen 8, And even then those would only really apply to Charizard. Again, movies where the pokemon feature prominently (squirtle M01, Charizard M01, M20) should have ticket sales accounted for and spinoffs should be included.
-Mewtwo: Again, isn't always obtainable or even appear in every game. if it is you usually have to beat the game first, and the only time it should really count is when he gets a new form (mega-evolution). Spinoffs should be included and ticket sales for Pokemon Movies 1, 16, and 22 should've been counted.
Bowser: SMB 2 (SMB USA) and Super Mario Land 1 and 2 Should not be counted. If Luigi's Mansion is not included, it SHOULD be counted.
Peach: Super Mario Land 1 and 2 should not be counted. If Luigi's Mansion and Dark Moon are included they also should not be counted
Luigi: if the Luigi's Mansion games are not included, they should be. Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Land 1 and 2 should not be counted.
All Mario Characters: Downloads for Mario Kart Tour should be included.
Simon: Besides 1 and 2, Simon is also the main character of Super Castlevania IV.
ROB: This is actually really easy. Units of the toy sold plus units of Mario Kart DS, where he is a playable character. Don't get sentimental on me. Tier lists are supposed to be 100% objective! sarcasm obviously.
Mega Man: Just... not included? at all? WTF?
Kazuya and Sora: also not included but they weren't announced yet so it makes sense. For those curious Kazuya has 56.736 million copies sold, and Kingdom Hearts has sold 36 million copies.
Anyway, great video! :)
The implication that the entire world collectively only bought 29.93 games with meta knight in it is really really funny
Someone recieved a broken cd who got the .93
Shouldn’t Luigi get bonus points for having his own series of games? Either way good vid
GANON WASNT IN SKYWARD SWORD
What ABOUT MEGA MAN
Yeah can't forget Luigi's mansion
Peach too
and WarioWare
Why does Toon link *only* get credit for wind waker and four swords? What about spirit tracks? Or phantom hourglass? Or link between worlds?
Wait, why Link Between Worlds? They don’t even use the Toon design in that game.
@@spugnoxngubcux9801 i mean its not either of the other two links and we definitely dont need a fourth link in smash
@@MagMattock Lonk IS in Smash as a Mii
Don't you mean Triforce Heroes for that last one?
@@megajam4837 sure if that makes my point better
Ice Climbers ONLY selling 1.5 million? This was on the Famicom, when gaming was still in its infancy. Selling that many copies 40 years ago was huge.
tfw your franchise is so unrecognizable that it got excluded from the recognizability tier list
*sad Mega Man noises*
That's sad. Mega Man is one of my favorite games but, you know, Capcom
How megaman is unrecognizable
It's really interesting how this thought process can change depending on which Smash game you started with. Like I knew about Shulk and Banjo prior, but Samus and Kirby were unknown to me when I played 64.
Korb
Half the roster of Smash 64 was unknown to me having grown up with Sega consoles. I only knew DK, Pokemon, and Mario characters. Everyone else was a big fat "Who?" to me.
"link ganon and zelda these guys have been in every zelda game" magoras mask: so you're calling me a joke?
that would aslo rank young link higher because hes not just in orcarina hes also in majoras
In links awakening they are not mentioned too
Ganon and Zelda are literally not in Link's Awakening at all, and Ganon isn't in Spirit Tracks either if I recall correctly
I know skyward sword is underrated but Ganon wasn’t in skyward sword he was replaced by demise who appeared after you defeat the last lord Ghirahim boss fight.
If you wanna get extra super technical BOTW Link has only been in 3 games (Not including Smash Ultimate), Ganondorf has only been 4, and Zelda has only been on 1
Bro the mother series should have gotten so much more attention. Such an underrated game
It's a crime how underrated Mother is
I know right
That's due entirely to localisation
To be fair, this rank was only based on sales, and western Mother 3 can't buy the game.
@@TheOneGuy1111 pretty sure earthbound is in the mother series, so it's not localization, it's just that it's a niche rpg
Undertale fan located
Fun fact about Metal Gear Solid:
Naked Snake’s (aka big boss or original snake) name is John
Solid Snake’s name is David
& Liquid Snakes’ name is Eli (or White Mamba)
Also Olimar is the main character in Hey Pikmin on the 3ds
Smash Bros fans: Why won't the fighting game community take us seriously?
Also Smash Bros fans: Who the hell is Terry Bogard?
Ah yes, Terry Bogard from the metroid series
if Vega got added, people would not know who the fuck he is
@@pthreelarry okay but which Vega? There was a whole translation debacle with that name.
I wouldn't blame people for not knowing the claw guy, but the big bad yeah people should know by now.
who the fuck is terry bogard
@@FixTheWi-Fi okay okay... Sagat?
Roy's game was also Japan only, the prequel to his game was actually a prequel to his game, starring his Dad!
Come on. Even if you have never played a video game, you’d know who donkey kong is. The design and name are the same, I don’t care if he’s technically not the canon one who appeared in the arcade game. My grandma doesn’t know who mario is, but has still heard of donkey kong.
I think Nick's choice of using game sales to determine popularity, or recognizability rather, is an interesting metric to use. I mean, if i were to try and rank this most accurately as possible i would have actual people who have never played or heard of smash ultimate before and take a poll of wether or not they know said character. It would obviously be very hard to find those people and just probably would take too long, but this would definitely give us the best results.
And as well, relevancy in the gaming world today is huge, so characters from dead franchises it really old ones aren't going to be as iconic, even if they did really well back in the day. I mean, ain't no FREAKING WAY you're telling me GAME & WATCH and WII FIT TRAINER are more recognizable than Lucario, Samus, or Inkling!
Plus other media featuring said character, like advertising, shows, movies, merch, and pop culture in general play big parts in a character's recognizability. You could have never EVER played a Pokemon video game but know who Jigglypuff is from the TCG or anime.
However... I do appreciate the butt-ton of effort Nick put in, commiting to his system. There's a lot of characters and games to look for, so massive props to him!
Wii Fit Trainer is a bad example to use. It's VERY recognizable whether people like it or not.
Look, I'm gonna say it again. There is no good method for this. Polling doesn't work because it depends heavily on things like region and time, look at how Banjo has a tiny following in Japan despite being a childhood classic in the west, Hero having no reception in the US despite being a game so big in Japan people Cal in sick when a new one comes out, and Terry being infamous for "who is this" despite being a big choice in (I want so say but I'm not sure) South America.
At that point, you would need multiple language polls, which aside from not working for a wide multitude of reasons, Aalso doesn't factor time of release. Duck Hunt is definitely one of the most iconic names of all time, but the question of do I know it vs do my little sister's friends know it is entirely different.
@@Endershock1678 yeah I'm from central America and I was so surprised to hear that so few people have heard of Terry when even my parents have heard of him but not kirby or ganondorf
No matter what you do you can't make an accurate list like this
I completely agree because their are lots of characters on this list that people could know about even if they've never played the video game like kirby, the pokemon, steve and even link or donkey kong. Also the relevance thing I think is important because someone like pac-man, for example, is timeless, which is the ultimate test of recognizability. Also like why is snake so high I had no idea he was a thing at all until today
This metric also puts characters with less games or are relatively newer at a significant disadvantage. Mario has a insane boost compared to the others because of how many spin-offs he has and all of which are extremely popular, yet his mainline series (listed as starting in 1985) has sold around 389.74 million copies. His spin-offs are what put him up to 832 million copies sold. Meanwhile there are games here that have less games sold but are also significantly younger than Mario, and that would need to be taken into account. I think the poster child for this (and the one character that needs to go up at least 2 tiers imo) is Steve. Let’s look back at that number for the mainline Mario series (arguably the sub series that made him famous in the first place). That francise has sold its 384 million copies over the span of 38 years. Meanwhile Steve has one game that has only been around for 14 years. The fact that this one 14 year old game is well within 100 million copies sold of the 38 year old main Mario series is insane. Minecraft is also the best selling single game of all time beating the second place game (GTA V) by over 100 million copies, which is also insane.
TLDR: Steve should probably be a few tiers higher based on how relatively new the game and the obscene number of copies it’s sold if this is the metric we want to use.
For toon link, you forgot about phantom hourglass, spirit tracks, and minish cap which would easily have pushed him to the next tier.
Same thing for young link he forgot majoras mask and twilight princess
I feel like prior to BOTW, Toon Link was the most recognizable of all the Links
Wind waker/phantom hourglass link isn’t the same as spirit track link, although both of them are toons and they’re game follows very closely by a couple of years/decades lore wise
@@tezereth who cares? He included four sword as a representation of toon link. Your logic isn’t good lol
For snake there are actually many different versions but the one in smash is solid snake which only appeared in mgs1, mgs2, and mgs4